Minister questions the future of BBC licence fee if Labour win election

Published on Sunday 28 February 2010 21:53

CULTURE Secretary Ben Bradshaw has questioned the future of the BBC television licence fee and raised the possibility that it could be scrapped if Labour remain in power after the election.

There was "good reason" to have a wide-ranging debate on the 3.6 billion settlement and if it should continue in the long-term "as the best funding mechanism" for the BBC, he said. This would include the size of the corporation and the size of the annual licence fee, as well as its future.

Proposed BBC cuts would reportedly close down digital stations BBC 6 Music and the Asian Network. Mr Bradshaw said yesterday: "The BBC is free at any time to say, 'Look we don't need all the money we have got, have some back.'

"But it is very, very important that political parties, in between the years when the licence fee is set, don't give a running commentary like that because that would be a breach of its independence.

"But I think there is a good reason to have a debate in the run-up to the next licence fee, which we shall have if we are in government, as to how big the BBC should be, how big the licence fee should be, even if we should continue to have a licence fee in the long-term."

Mr Bradshaw declined to comment on the proposed BBC cuts. He admitted he had never listened to 6 Music, but said the station's future was for the BBC to decide.

"Whatever the BBC drops or stops doing there are bound to be people who are not happy with that, but hey, that is the job of leadership," he said.